TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT - 04.06.2010

Obstructed pedestrian route costs £150,000

The accident

In July 2006, Peter Prunic (P) was working for sub-contractors Clancy Docwra at a housing development in Aylesbury. The site was being run by P J Carey (Contractors) Ltd (C) who had responsibility for ensuring an effective traffic management plan was implemented. But the pedestrian route on the site was obstructed by packs of bricks, rubbish skips, and two parked vans, causing P to walk in the traffic route. He was fatally injured when he was struck by a reversing vehicle.

In court

C pleaded guilty to breaching the construction regulations and was ordered to pay fines and prosecution costs totalling £154,000. The HSE inspector said that in addition to the obstruction of the pedestrian walkway there was a lack of signed and marked pedestrian crossing points.

The law and traffic routes

Although the accident happened on a construction site, the same rules apply elsewhere. Whatever your type of workplace, you need to think about traffic management, especially where there are reversing vehicles. The current requirements for traffic control on construction sites are contained within the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The equivalent requirements for all other workplaces are in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Both of these sets of regulations require that:

• in general, sites are organised so that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate without causing safety or health risks

• traffic routes are suitably designed and sufficient in number, given the volume of traffic and the type of vehicles using them

• there are also sufficient numbers of pedestrian routes

• there is separation/protection between pedestrian and vehicular routes.

Assess the risk

If areas of your workplace are used by vehicles, you need to consider the types of activity which create hazards and then decide upon the most appropriate risk control measures - in other words, do a risk assessment (see The next step).

Tip 1. Focus your efforts, and any budget, on the problems which are most likely to kill or seriously injure, e.g. reversing vehicles, blind spots, loading and unloading areas.

Tip 2. Once you’ve identified and implemented your control measures, make sure that, unlike in this case, they’re being used/followed.

Note. Obviously, safe walkways reduce risks. But if they’re blocked, this could actually increase risks. There are two reasons for this. One is because if drivers assume that pedestrians won’t be sharing their routes, they are less likely to be on the look out for them. The other is that by having designated routes, you’ll reduce the amount of space vehicles have to operate in, i.e. there won’t be sufficient room for them to avoid pedestrians.

For a free sample risk assessment checklist, visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk (HS 08.19.04).